AL Ahram: Bush administration supports Sudan's integrity but not willing to enforce it

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail praised Cairo Khartoum eternal relations, asserting that the current integration will not start from zero point but it will add to the previous built achievements.

The Minister in a press interview with AL Ahram correspondent in south Africa, said the Sudanese government encourages Cairo Sudanese opposition leaders dialogue because Egypt has a clear and strong stance towards Sudan's territorial integrity even when the two countries bilateral relations were tense.

Answering a question-on how the ordinary man in the two countries feels the fruits of the two states' integration, the minister indicated that during the era of both President Anwar al-Sadat and Jaafar al-Numieri the drive of cooperation was highly witnessed including setting up a joint venture to reclaim and cultivate desert lands and access of customs-free Egyptian goods into the Sudanese market.

"We will work-for revival of these projects many others for the benefit of the two peoples"He said.

The Minister frankly spoke about the Sudan-US relations who practiced many changes since the former US President Clinton. He pointed out that the Bush administration has adopted a policy that is different from its previous one.

"Clinton administration encouraged some neighboring countries like Eriteria, Ethiopia and Uganda to militarily attack Sudan and then tried to punish it through international organizations and even claimed that Sudan produced chemical weapons and actually they destroyed a pharmaceutical plant, but the present administration is fully convinced that all these tricks went in view, so it supports Sudan's integrity but is not willing to enforce it," he added.

Commenting on the voices attacking the Arab league, he critized these voices because the AL is the sole Arab entity that embodies the Arabs' dreams and will.

I call for introducing some reformations not abolishing the AL", he said.